Dancing in the Moonlight
by GothicRinoa
Summary: (AU) Tsuzuki, as a traveling pedler, comes to a small village to find a curse placed over it...


Notes: yea, I'm a freakish AU(alternate universe) person and mae a fantasyish, medieval fic of YnM...there are no real warnings, mostly based on TsuxSoka. Well chap ones just ..bleh... *nods*  
  
***  
  
Chapter 1  
  
The sun blared down on the dusty dirt road. It seemed like it hadn't rained in days, the air was hot and made it seem like you couldn't even take in a breath of air. These days were terrible for traveling. It made the day seem longer and more tireing then usual. But this was the like of a traveling merchant.You get your good days and you get your bad. Luckily it wasn't raining.  
  
Tsuzuki batted a fly away from his face. He nearly scowled. He brushes some dirt from the straw woven hat he wore and stuck the rediculous thing back on his head. It seriously did look rediculous on him. But he still wore it since it did keep some of the heat from his head. He shifted the large back pack. It looked awful heavy for the him, but he seemed to manage well.   
  
Swiftly swatting another fly from his face he decided that he had had enough. He took a rest near a large tree near the side of the road. He was getting tired, dirty and the flies were driving him crazy. He leaned back against the tree and sighed. He then turned his glance to a worn down wooden sign near the tree and squinted his eyes so to read the worn out lettering.   
  
"Must be a town...village..or something ahead."  
  
He lazily took a hand and ran it through his hair. He was going to get heat stroke on a day like today. Well maybe it was an exageration but he knew he still had to check it out. Maybe sell some of his goods, or items he carried with him.  
  
"Ok, so maybe I can make it to a town." He muttered under his breath. He lifted himself up and nearly threw the large pack over his back and wearily went back out to travel the distance to that town.  
  
"If I'm lucky...that place will be VERY...close. But since I'm not that lucky."  
  
He made a habit of talking with himself since he usually ended up traveling alone. Sometimes he would come by the random traveller and they would travel together if their destinations were similar. He enjoyed company but since the company didn't stay he felt he needed some sort of entertainment, what better then to talk to yourself. Maybe it made him feel a bit better when traveling alone. He didn't know.  
  
The air seemed to lift and the air became a bit cooler. Well he was travelling up hill, it was bound to get cooler...right? The road was rather tireing and UPHILL. The worst thing to travel was uphill. It was the worst way to travel but since he was half way there he decided to keep on going.  
  
Eventually he could hear a small sound, well voices more less. His energy seemed to rise and he felt very excited to get there. He begin to run, well try to run. It was not long before he could see a small village. It was rather peaceful looking. The village was nested safetly at the bottom of a lage mountain cliff. It had a small well in the middle and at the edge of the town he could see, yet barely, a small crop of vegetales growing. He saw small children running about giggling and playing with delight.  
  
His smile widened, mostly because he knew he could rest here for awhile. He walked into the village and afew small children stopped their playing to just to stare and gawk at the young merchant. Ge smiled and waved a bit to them and they shyly responded with a wave.  
  
He could smell the scent of fresh baked bread in the area which made him feel really hungry. He couldn't help but check out which person in that village was making the nicely smelling bread. He instantly was draw to a small house near where he stood and found himself actually peering into their window just to take a look.  
  
A young girl stood over a small table and what just looked to be that she had just finished the bread. He couldn't resist it. He went over to the door and knocked quickly.  
  
The girl which he saw inside opened the door slightly and blinked."Uh, hello?" She blinked in surprise to find this stranger on the doorstep."Is there something you want?"  
  
Tsuzuki rudely opened the door the rest of the way and grinned."Yes,I'm a traveling merchant, uh, I happened to well, I guess I happened to smell what you were cooking and I guess I couldn't resist. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind tradeing some of that for something I have here, would you? " Tsuzuki's eyes were almost pleading.  
  
The girl couldn't help but laugh. She smiled slightly and placed a curious hand on her chin."Really? Hm, let me see what you have." She turned so to let him in, and he quickly did so.  
  
Tsuzuki dropped the pack to the floor and begin to take a large ammount of, well, junk from it. Nothing seemed to be really worth anything, but the girl didn't want to be rude so she found a small statue. It looked cute so she looked at Tsuzuki."Ok, how about this, and I give you some of my bread."  
  
Tsuzuki's eyes lite up."R-really?! Thank you!" He shook the girls hand swiftly and she smiled slightly and nodded.  
  
The girl went to the table and cut half of the bread and handed it to the excited merchant.  
  
Tsuzuki munched on the newly made bread and the girl tilted her head."Don't see many merchants out this way, what brings you here?"  
  
"Huh? Oh, uhh, I was just passing by and thought I'd stop by." He said between chews.  
  
The girl nodded."I see."  
  
Tsuzuki quickly finished and smiled with content."I thank you again. Now, uh, is there any place around here where I can stay for the night?" He then recalled that he didn't see a Inn in this place.  
  
"Oh now that's where most travelers come by a problem when coming here."  
  
Tsuzuki almost wanted to die now. There was no way he was going to walk back down that hill and find another town or village. He had the worst look of disappointment on his face and the young girl noticed and shook her head.  
  
"But! When visitors happen to come by there's always someone in this town who will take them in for a little while."  
  
Tsuzuki sighed with relief.  
  
"And since you made yourself so aquanted with my house I'll let you stay here for the night, but not without a price." She half grinned.  
  
"A-ah! That's...where I come across a problem...you see I spent all my money in the last town I visited. So you..s..see....aha...." He let out a nervous laugh and looked at the girl which rubbed her chin in deep thought.  
  
"Well....since you say you don't have any right now I guess you could give me more ..ahh, items of yours and it'll be a deal. What do you say?"  
  
Tsuzuki smiled widely."AH! Thank you! Yes, a deal it is!" He was now full of energy again. He glanced around the small house."Where do I sleep then?" He asked curiously as it didn't seem like there was much room.  
  
The girl nearly let out a giggle."Well, there's a small building just outside my house, it's where I used to keep some animals but it's empty now. Feel free to set up a bed there."  
  
A shack, that wasn't really what he expected, his expression would probably show that. He nodded and thanked her again and went outside the house and looked to the right of the house where the small shack set. He frowned and nearly grimiced. Takeing out afew blankets from his pack he lay them out over some leftover hay that sat in the shack.  
  
After, he lay down and groaned. "What a day... Maybe I'll look around here tommorow, maybe I'll find something interesting..." He yawned and felt his eyes shut and he soon drifted off to sleep.  
  
---  
  
Although he awoke with a start as he felt something jabbing him slightly numerious times. He opened one eye annoyed to see small children standing over him.  
  
"Is he dead?!" One of the kids asked in a whiney tone of voice.  
  
Tsuzuki sighed and grummbled to himself that someone was disturbing his sleep and he sat up quickly and glared strongly at the small children.  
  
The smallest of the group squealed in fright and hid jumped back. The other children where a bit startled and ran off to where they played.  
  
Tsuzuki sighed and rubbed the back of his head. It felt like he had slept on rocks. He stretched and groaned a little annoyed and couldn't pull himself to get up. He nearly pouted becuase of the uncomfortable sleeping place.   
  
"Guess it was better then nothing...but still."  
  
Well since he was awake he might as well explore this little town a bit. The air was nice and cool, just perfect for a good time to explore. The town was really quiet and seemed really peaceful. "Ah...so nice," Tsuzuki grinned."A place like this must be really nice to live in."  
  
Just as he was about to explore a bit the girl from the small house walked out. "Ah, traveller, how was your sleep?" She nearly laughed.  
  
Tsuzuki rubbed the back of his neck and grinned."It coulda been worse miss."  
  
She smiled."So, when are you leaving?"  
  
Tsuzuki blinked at her."Well, I really want to have a look around. Hm, oh, that mountain.. Does anyone explore that mountain often?"  
  
The girl turned and glanced at the mountain."W-well, t..that mountain is forbidden!" She exclaimed in a harsh tone.  
  
Tsuzuki tilted his head."So, I guess I can't explore it then?"  
  
She sighed."Look... maybe it's best you left and went far away from here. It's better you do."  
  
"But why?"  
  
"T...This place is cursed. Please just leave, it's bad enough you were this long... If you don't leave now you probably never will... I don't know that for sure but...just leave."  
  
Tsuzuki looked at her with confusion."B-but, I-..cursed?"  
  
"Yes, cursed."  
  
"Cursed how..?"  
  
"We... we are cursed by a demon who lived on the mountain. Ever since I can remember and maybe further back this place has been cursed. No one knows for sure how long. But we have to sacrifice one person born with strong ammounts of energy, a empath. This demon feeds off strong energy like that."  
  
"Sacrifice..?!"  
  
She turned away from him."It's the only way, if not we would all die. He destroy everything. We bring the empath to the top of the mountain and the demon takes a part of his emotions, his energy, soon he will kill him. Then another will be born. And when they reach the age of sixteen... we sacrifice them."  
  
Tsuzuki stared at her."I'm not leaving. I'm staying."  
  
She turned back to him."You can't..."  
  
Tsuzuki frowned."Don't worry about it."  
  
"Fine then, I can't stop you. Do as you wish..."  
  
**  
  
end of chap 1; review please. 


End file.
